The Confederate Battle Flag

27062015

THIS is the “Stars and Bars,” and It’s Safe – For Now

Amidst all the controversy surrounding the Confederate battle flag and its “banning” at expected and intended, and unexpected but maybe intended, and even unexpected and unintended places, I thought I’d weigh in, if just to rustle up some page views (it’s a proven formula.)

Here’s the deal: the Confederate battle flag (not to be confused with the Stars and Bars or First National flag of the Confederacy, pictured above) did not exist at the time of the First Battle of Bull Run.

There you go. That’s it.

So, re-enactors at First Bull Run events should not expect admonishment by authorities to keep their colors cased. Authors of First Bull Run books should not expect their removal from online trade sites because of offensive if historically accurate dust jacket illustrations. Vendors of First Bull Run battlefield applications and war games should not expect suspension of the ability of customers to purchase or download their product.

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Precisely. This is how silly this all is. One flag co-opted by some, in a free country, will now result in bans of apps in the Apple store, and Amazon is apparently on the way to banning books that have the Stars and Bars on the front. Guess how much that is going to cost us?

My “Civil War Battles” apps were removed from the appstore for about a day before being restored, Apple having revised their draconian context-free move to exempt “historical and educational” apps from their ban. It should be said that Amazon and Google were more adult actors in the matter and kept them up in their stores…..so far.

Since I am kind of a worst case scenario glutton, when we were developing these things it actually crossed my mind that something like this might happen.

The actions of Apple and Amazon are also happening in that free country. They’re dictated by the free market in this regard, not governments. If enough customers want CBFs on their products then these companies will probably scale back their policies.

No matter what the outcome, it is good to finally start seeing the Civil War blogging community starting to chime in. Often we are the “first line” of ACW information, and we had been unusually silent. I think it is terribly important to know that the Confederate battle flag was not at Bull Run I. I think it is equally important to know some of the ramifications of the similarities between the two national flags.

Our job is to at least try to educate folks, and the more one knows, the more one’s opinion ca reasonably be formed.

Confederate monuments will be torn down, perhaps even on battlefield parks where Rebel souvenirs are presently being removed from gift shops. Streets, schools, and military bases will be renamed. Outright falsehoods about Confederate leaders will be predominately accepted as valid and grow geometrically in number. One seed is the New York Times Op-Ed by David Brooks falsely declaring that Lee never freed the slaves his wife inherited.

The trend may not end until a suggestion is finally rejected that six of the stripes on Old Glory be removed because they represent six of the original thirteen states sanctioning slavery.

Attenuating the eradication trend will require a “Nixon in China” initiative — meaning that a prominent Civil War historian, author, or National Park Service authority who *believes* the trend is in danger of going too far says so publicly.

Dulce bellum inexpertis

“I am sending you these little incidents as I hear them well authenticated. They form, to the friends of the parties, part of the history of the glorious 21st. More anon.”

About

Hello! I’m Harry Smeltzer and welcome to Bull Runnings, where you'll find my digital history project on the First Battle of Bull Run which is organized under the Bull Run Resources section. I'll also post my thoughts on the processes behind the project and commentary on the campaign, but pretty much all things Civil War are fair game. You'll only find musings on my “real job” or my personal life when they relate to this project. My mother always told me "never discuss politics or religion in mixed company”, and that's sound advice where current events are concerned.

The Project

This site is more than a blog. Bull Runnings also hosts digitized material pertaining to First Bull Run. In the Bull Run Resources link in the masthead and also listed below are links to Orders of Battle, After Action Reports, Official Correspondence, Biographical Sketches, Diaries, Letters, Memoirs, Newspaper Accounts and much, much more. Take some time to surf through the material. This is a work in process with no end in sight, so check back often!